Emmanuel Ochayi
World Bank Highlights Absenteeism Issues
The World Bank’s latest Human Capital Public Expenditure and Institutional Review on Nigeria has revealed absenteeism issues affecting public expenditure on health and education.
The report indicates that absenteeism among health workers and teachers is a critical factor leading to subpar spending quality in these sectors.
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“The level of absenteeism of health workers and teachers is a critical factor affecting the quality of spending in education and health in Nigeria,” the World Bank stated.
According to the report, due to the absenteeism of these workers, up to 13% of public expenditures in education and 21% in health are lost. Specifically, in Lagos State, leakage from the health and education systems was as high as $6.7 million in 2021.
Teacher Absenteeism in Nigeria
The World Bank’s Service Delivery Indicator Survey showed that, on average, 13.7% of teachers were absent from school.
Among those present, about a fifth (19.1%) were not in class teaching, and when at school, teachers spent an average of 20.7% of their time on non-teaching activities.
The findings indicate that teachers spend less than three-quarters of their scheduled teaching time on actual teaching.
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Health Worker Absenteeism and Its Effects
The survey also highlighted absenteeism among health workers, with a third (31.7%) of randomly selected health providers absent during unannounced visits.
The absence rate was higher in urban facilities (34.2%) compared to rural ones (30.0%). Among different health facilities, health centres had the highest absence rates at 33.6%, while health posts had the lowest at 24.3%. Nurses exhibited the highest absence rates at 40.9%.
Economic Implications of Absenteeism
The report projected that Nigeria’s economy could be up to 2.77 times larger if comprehensive education and health services were provided.
“To put this into perspective, this represents an additional growth of approximately 2.06 percentage points annually over the next five decades,” the report noted.
Public Spending and its Shortfalls
The World Bank highlighted that Nigeria had the largest number of out-of-school children, the highest child mortality rates, and the largest contributor to maternal deaths globally.
Despite these challenges, overall public spending in Nigeria, at 12% of GDP, is below the necessary threshold to finance adequate public services, which is lower than the Sub-Saharan African average of 17.2%.
Recommendations for Improvement
To tackle these issues, the World Bank recommended significant investment increases in the education and health sectors. “Considering its stage of economic development, Nigeria should ideally be investing at least $1,000 per primary student, which means increasing the per-student expenditure sixfold,” the report stated.
Additionally, Nigeria would need to increase its investment in basic education ninefold from its 2022 level to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), which focuses on quality education.
The World Bank’s report underscores the urgent need for Nigeria to address absenteeism in its health and education sectors to improve public spending quality and economic growth.
Increased investment and strategic reforms are necessary to overcome these challenges and achieve sustainable development goals.
Emmanuel Ochayi is a journalist. He is a graduate of the University of Lagos, School of first choice and the nations pride. Emmanuel is keen on exploring writing angles in different areas, including Business, climate change, politics, Education, and others.
